Abstract
Graphesthesia is a discriminative sensation. Graphesthesia assessment is used for evaluating dysfunction of the contralateral parietal lobe or the posterior column of the spinal cord. The methods for administrating graphesthesia assessment have not yet been defined. We investigated the administration details and the contents of graphesthesia assessment.
For the administration procedures, contents should be drawn to coincide with the angle of the body axis. There were few differences between the sizes recognized and the actual sizes in each examined body region, suggesting that the size of the contents need not change for each body region examined. The contents should be drawn properly for each examined body region. On the posterior surfaces of the head and torso, normal images should be drawn, and on their anterior surfaces, mirror images should be drawn. For upper and lower extremities, normal images should be drawn on the inner-facing surfaces, and mirror images on the outer-facing surfaces. For the contents, the accuracy ratio decreased as the number of strokes increased; therefore, the number of strokes should be minimized. Lists with a limited number of choices should be used, as the accurate answer ratio was 100% only when we examined using such brlists.
In conclusion, the contents of graphesthesia assessment should consist of a list of items familiar to the examinee and featuring a minimized number of strokes, such as Arabic numerals.
